CUTTACK: At the farewell of Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra organised by the Orissa High Court, Chief Justice S Muralidhar lauded the services rendered by him as judge of the High Court for 12 years.The farewell was given during a full court reference on Thursday on transfer of Justice Mishra to the Uttarakhand High Court.
Chief Justice Muralidhar said that Justice Mishra had disposed of 49, 667 cases during the 12 years of which, 39,931 were criminal cases and 17,736 civil cases. He delivered 39,217 judgments as a single judge bench and 10,450 as part of division bench.
He added that Justice Mishra was a good and hardworking judge known for giving a patient hearing to everyone which reflected in his “excellent judgments”. He dealt with several sensitive questions of law which came to be the subject of “well-crafted judgments” some of which were affirmed by the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice recalled the observations made by Justice Mishra in some of his admirable judgments including the landmark Chinmayee Jena @ Sonu Krishna Jena versus State of Odisha case in which he recognised the petitioner’s (a transman) right to be treated as a male and refer to him as he/him/his.
Justice Mishra, who hailed from Balangir had started his career as a lawyer in 1988 and was selected for the post of additional district & sessions judge in 1999 after he secured the first position in the recruitment examination for district judges from the Bar. He was elevated as judge of Orissa High Court on October 7, 2009.